Traveling And Staying Healthy

Whether you are on the road for fun or for work, staying focused on the road can be demanding. Your schedule being different, you will be sleeping in a place you are not used to. Travel can be stressful enough without having to worry about eating healthy, and getting enough exercise. So here are some easy ways to get the best from your trip and stay on the health path.

By Hugh Finlay

Prepare

As familiar as it might sound, not preparing is like preparing to fail. As you know where you are going a week or two before the journey, and which hotel you will be staying at, look around to see if there are grocery stores with good produce nearby. Look at the menus of local restaurant for healthy meals. When you know there is a grocery store, or a juice bar, a few blocks away, it will be a lot easier to avoid eating at fast food places.

Make Suggestions

Tell the waiter or waitress about your nutritional needs when you are dining out. Ask for salad dressing to be put on the side, or ask for steamed vegetables, instead of the usual side dishes, like mashed potatoes. Have marinara instead of creamy sauces. Order grilled dishes, like grilled vegetable fajitas, instead of fried dishes. If all the dishes on the menu are fried, ask the waiter if you can have the dish grilled instead. Do not feel bad about requesting changes to the dish. Restaurants want their customers to be happy. If enough customers request lighter food, the restaurant may make changes in the menu that benefit more health-conscious customers in future.

Do not Miss Meals

Whether you are at meetings all day, or relaxing at the beach for the afternoon, you may lose track of time, and miss a meal when traveling. This may seem like no harm, but skipping a meal can mean that you will eat too much at the next meal. Take some of your favorite snacks with you when you head off on a journey. This will keep your hunger in check.

Keep Hydrated

You can get dehydrated when traveling. You may be tempted, to miss out on drinking water, when you are on long flights or long road trips, to save yourself going to the bathroom. But this is not a good idea. It is better to drink plenty of water, and stop whenever you need to on the road, or use the plane restroom, as this will curb your cravings for unhealthy foods that are found so often at gas stations and airports. If you do not drink enough fluids, it is easy to feel that dehydration is hunger.

Exercise

Aim to get some exercise in every day. Hotels have gyms or somewhere where you can exercise, which makes it easy to get a workout in, before you go to the beach or to a meeting. If you would prefer to go for a run or a walk, explore a new beach or park during the run or walk. If you like, use workout DVDs, or have streamed workouts on your mobile phone to help maintain your exercise routine right there in the hotel room. Following a healthy exercise and eating plan is not easy when you are traveling. But if you plan and are determined, you can keep control on weight gain when traveling.

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